Press release: Jill Stein Achieves Ballot Access in Minnesota

St. Paul, MN (August 22, 2016) – Last week the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office reported that the Jill Stein for President campaign (jill2016.com) petition has met the necessary requirements to place Jill Stein on the ballot in Minnesota as the Green Party presidential candidate.

Because the state required that both presidential and vice presidential candidates be recorded on the petition before gathering signatures, a stand-in for vice president was necessary despite the petitioning process beginning several months before the party’s presidential nominating convention. We believe the current inability to substitute our stand-in for our endorsed candidate is unfair in light of the arduous and time consuming ballot access process.

It is our hope that the Secretary of State, Steve Simon, will work with the Green Party of Minnesota to enable our stand-in vice presidential candidate, Howie Hawkins, be replaced by our official endorsed candidate Ajamu Baraka.

Minnesota requires minor parties to collect and submit 2,000 signatures before August 23 in order to obtain access to the presidential ballot, and Green Party of Minnesota volunteers submitted 6,700 on August 15th.

“We are delighted to offer Minnesota voters more choice at the ballot box and thrilled with the flood of support coming from long time Greens and former Bernie supporters. The fact that the “major party” candidates are historically disliked and the American public has overwhelmingly rejected the two-party system means it is time for a serious sea change in our political system. Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka represent that sea change – one that rejects corporate donations and embraces the progressive policies like single payer health care, living wages, and investment in renewable energy the majority of the American public support” said Brandon Long, Chair of the Green Party of Minnesota.

Jill Stein, a Harvard-trained physician is proposing a Green New Deal for America – a four-part policy strategy for moving America quickly out of crisis into a secure, sustainable future. Inspired by the New Deal programs that helped the U.S. out of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Green New Deal proposes to provide similar relief and create an economy that makes communities sustainable, healthy and just.

Ajamu Baraka is an internationally recognized human rights activist, organizer and geo-political analyst. Founding Executive Director of the US Human Rights Network (until 2011) and Coordinator of the U.S. based “Black Left Unity Network’s” Committee on International Affairs, Baraka has served on the boards of various national and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International (USA) and the National Center for Human Rights Education. He has served on the boards of the Center for Constitutional Rights; Africa Action; Latin American Caribbean Community Center; Diaspora Afrique; and the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights.

The campaign is currently petitioning for ballot access across the U.S, and expects to be on the ballot in at least 47 states – more ballot lines than any other Green presidential campaign to date – and will ligated the remainder.